Huambo - The provincial council of the Angolan Bar Association (OAA) in Huambo provided a total of 903 legal aid services to needy citizens in 2024, especially to those with problems of paternity denial and illegal dismissal, the local president of the OAA, Domingos Sassi, said on Tuesday.
According to the OAA leader, among the beneficiaries were citizens with difficulties in recognising a de facto union due to death, as well as 412 family cases, 225 labour cases, 204 criminal cases and 62 civil/administrative cases.
Sassi said that in 2023 the Provincial Council carried out 814 legal aid cases.
He urged citizens to go to the municipal administrations whenever their rights are violated, ask for a poverty certificate and then attach proof of the violations and ask the President of the Provincial Council to request a lawyer, who will immediately appoint an associate free of charge.
Sassi highlighted the slow processing of habeas corpus,the lack of a room for lawyers in the municipal commands of the National Police and the lack of punctuality of judges at hearings, which has put a strain on the profession, as the main difficulties faced by members in the province.
Regarding the OAA elections in Huambo province in June 2024, Domingos Sassi said that the results are still suspended due to a controversial challenge by one of the competing lists.
The OAA provincial council in Huambo has 546 lawyers and 556 trainees and controls 61 offices, of which 54 are in the municipality of Huambo, four in Caála and three in Bailundo. ZZN/JSV/ALH/AMP
